Scream Kings 2019, Day 2: Leslie Nielsen

Tonight we bring you an unlikely scream king - Leslie Nielsen! While most people know this icon for his comedy chops, he got his start playing dashing hero types and even took a few turns at terror throughout his career. He appeared in episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "Night Gallery" before starring as Mr. Hammond, father and high school principal to Jamie Lee Curtis's Kim in "Prom Night" (Paul Lynch, 1980). In this teenage revenge flick often considered a standard of the slasher genre, a group of friends bound by a childhood accident are murdered one by one years after they swore each other to secrecy. He takes a deliciously maniacal turn in "Creepshow" (George A. Romero, 1982) as Richard Vickers, a wealthy husband who has a sadistic way of settling the score with his cheating wife and her lover in the segment 'Something To Tide You Over.' This campy cult favorite is the perfect place for him to flex his funny bone to ghoulish effect. He went on to star in several horror parodies like "Repossessed," "Dracula: Dead and Loving It," "Stan Helsing," and several installments of "Scary Movie," melding scary and funny like only he could.